Ready for children working in factories?

[gondrin]

So, the governor of Iowa just passed a bill that allows teenagers as young as 14 to work in factories, as long as they aren't using machinery. Having worked in factories before, yeah, you are ALWAYS around machinery. Oh, BTW, teens as young as 16 will be also allowed to serve alcohol.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...1cc3018b1&ei=7

Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill rolling back child labor laws in response to business owner complaints over labor shortages. Iowa's unemployment rate was under 3% last month.

Iowa has become the latest state to roll back child labor protections, with Republican Governor Kim Reynolds on Friday signing into law a new bill allowing Iowa teenagers to work more jobs for longer hours.

Under the new law, 14- and 15-year-olds may now hold jobs that require them to participate in "light" manufacturing (without machinery) and 16- and 17-year-old teens may serve alcohol as late as 11 p.m. on summer nights with a parent's consent, Insider previously reported.

"With this legislation Iowa joins 20 other states in providing tailored, common sense labor provisions that allow young adults to develop their skills in the workforce," ABC News reported Reynolds said in a statement.

The Des Moines Register reported Rep. Dave Deyoe, the bill's sponsor in the House, said youth employment leads to "less poverty, money for future education, less delinquent behavior, experience in the workplace and access to mentors and role models, and finally, access to careers that may mean a more successful future."

However, the outlet reported the US Department of Labor's top lawyer, Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda, last month criticized bills like Iowa's, calling it "irresponsible for states to consider loosening child labor protections."

Vox reported GOP lawmakers say such laws create "a simple solution" to workforce staffing issues. Businesses have increasingly reported labor shortages since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed over 1,127,000 Americans since 2020, according to the World Health Organization.

The bill is one of ten tracked across the nation by the Economic Policy Institute in the past two years that have been either introduced or enacted, targeting minimum ages for certain jobs, how many hours minors are allowed to work, and which industries they're allowed to work in.

The Governors of Iowa, Arkansas, New Hampshire, and New Jersey have each passed measures introduced in their respective states. Of those, only New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is a Democrat.

Representatives for Gov. Reynolds did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

The Iowa Governor's decision to roll back child labor laws is an apparent response to business owners who say they cannot find enough workers. Iowa's April unemployment rate was 2.7%, local outlet KUAZ reported.

Arkansas' unemployment rate was 2.8%, New Hampshire's was 2.1%, and New Jersey's was 3.5% — the only state that has recently rolled back child labor protections with a higher average than the nationwide 3.4% unemployment rate.

[Captain N]

So when Timmy gets his hand cutoff by the machines he wasn't supposed to be around, the employer can claim it was employee negligence. When 16 year old Sally gets sexually assaulted by a drunken middle age man, the bar can claim her parent's allowed her to work there. Sounds like the party of "Protect the Children" is simply trying to get those "unskilled service jobs" filled by any means necessary even if it means exploiting the youth of America.

[Cynical Asshole]

The children yearn for the mines.

[PACOX]

Explains their appetite for forcing people to have kids and enforce their ultra conservative values.


You can only exploit an adult so much even if they are desperate for a job. Kids don't know any better or have the life experience to say "fuck it", easier for some some factory manager to pay low wages under dangerous conditions. Less likely to demand benefits and complain to OHSA. Won't demand higher pay or you can talk them down because they have parents to make up the difference.

[D Luniz]

I'm biased as hell on rules like this
(Cause I got fired three days before my 90 days was up when I was 15 and I, my dad and my mom got three different reasons why when asking the reason)

So no surprise this is a law in Iowa too

Iowa's minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. However, employers can pay a new employee under 20 years of age a training wage of $4.25 per hour for the first 90 days of employment.

[Kaleredar]

Well, let's see:

Children wont unionize, probably don't have the networking to speak to other workers to see what they're paid, can't vote for things like minimum wage increases, don't have to be paid as much, have very little concept of money, and have no immediate prospects to switch jobs if a particular job is treating/paying them poorly.

Sounds like "easily exploitable workforce" to me.

[unfilteredJW]

I'm biased as hell on rules like this
(Cause I got fired three days before my 90 days was up when I was 15 and I, my dad and my mom got three different reasons why when asking the reason)

So no surprise this is a law in Iowa too

Yeah, guillotines out.

[Poopymonster]

Well, let's see:

Children wont unionize, probably don't have the networking to speak to other workers to see what they're paid, can't vote for things like minimum wage increases, don't have to be paid as much, have very little concept of money, and have no immediate prospects to switch jobs if a particular job is treating/paying them poorly.

Sounds like "easily exploitable workforce" to me.

You mean children can't unionize. They can't sign the paperwork to join the union as minors.

That's not a bug, that's a feature.

[Gestopft]

You can only exploit an adult so much even if they are desperate for a job.

And in addition to kids being more easily exploitable, having a larger labor pool of younger workers allows them to exploit adults more. That's really the whole point of this venture.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

And in addition to kids being more easily exploitable, having a larger labor pool of younger workers allows them to exploit adults more. That's really the whole point of this venture.

Yeah there's big "You can be replaced anytime" energy here.

[Captain N]

Yeah there's big "You can be replaced anytime" energy here.

Just for a moment let's think about the hypothetical positive in this -- and by that I mean a huge fantasy land stretch of the imagination.

We know Conservative voters love to blame low wages on jobs being unskilled, or on immigrants, or on whatever other boogeyman that Fox or NewsMax spits out. Imagine the backlash when those very voters end up losing their jobs to their own children because it's a cheaper alternative. The "I got mine so fuck everyone else" crowd could be in some real trouble when the shit they wish on everyone else finally starts affecting them.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Just for a moment let's think about the hypothetical positive in this -- and by that I mean a huge fantasy land stretch of the imagination.

We know Conservative voters love to blame low wages on jobs being unskilled, or on immigrants, or on whatever other boogeyman that Fox or NewsMax spits out. Imagine the backlash when those very voters end up losing their jobs to their own children because it's a cheaper alternative. The "I got mine so fuck everyone else" crowd could be in some real trouble when the shit they wish on everyone else finally starts affecting them.

I'm just waiting for the dude that's always pawing at the waitresses at the local watering hole to learn his 16 year old daughter starts there next week.

[Dontrike]

You mean children can't unionize. They can't sign the paperwork to join the union as minors.

That's not a bug, that's a feature.

The other features being a poor family may force a child to work, creating more abuse by the family and management, and when those kids don't learn they're more likely to end up Republican and with that more angry and maleable to the GQP's rhetoric.

[Very Tired]

Really seems like society has a much more desperate need for low skill blue collar works and less for decent paying white collar work. And rather than take the increase demand for these min wage workers as a sign that wages need to go up, they just lobby the government to increase the labor pool with child labor.

[bladeXcrasher]

Really seems like society has a much more desperate need for low skill blue collar works and less for decent paying white collar work. And rather than take the increase demand for these min wage workers as a sign that wages need to go up, they just lobby the government to increase the labor pool with child labor.

Yeah...when Republicans say America is full, they really mean we had lots of untapped labor potential.

[Biglog]

Iowa has been steadily replicating authoritarian Florida laws, to less national coverage than Florida has received. But the reason is the same. The governor of Iowa Kim Reynolds, like DeSantis, also has her eyes set running for eventual higher office and is towing the GOP line to that end.

Still, it is shocking that citizens would support such backwards and oppressive ideas. Let's legalize child labor and allow minors to serve alcohol, and people there are like "well there is a labor shortage", huh? There were valid historically-proven reasons those laws were on the books to protect them. We've got plenty of history books that detail exactly how that went before those laws, and spoiler alert it wasn't good for children. But it was financially beneficial for the adults running businesses that employed child labor.

[enigma77]

Really seems like society has a much more desperate need for low skill blue collar works and less for decent paying white collar work. And rather than take the increase demand for these min wage workers as a sign that wages need to go up, they just lobby the government to increase the labor pool with child labor.

The free market should only be free if it serves the wealthy's interests, duh. It's not capitalism otherwise.

[The Stormbringer]

"Hmmm, instead of raising the wages we offer to convince people to join, let's instead lobby politicians to let us bring in children, who we don't have to pay as much and will willingly do dangerous stuff for us because they're stupid!"

The GOP sure loves kids.

[Kathranis]

Really seems like society has a much more desperate need for low skill blue collar works and less for decent paying white collar work. And rather than take the increase demand for these min wage workers as a sign that wages need to go up, they just lobby the government to increase the labor pool with child labor.

That's not what the actual statistics show. There's no shortage of low skilled labor, it's skilled labor for jobs like construction that's lacking.

The issue is that increasingly low skilled labor doesn't pay the bills, and the need for endless growth requires corporations to find creative new ways to reduce spending, like hiring 14 year olds that they can legally pay less-than-minimum wage.

[Kaleredar]

This seems like something that a federal mandate could easily nip in the bud.

“Pro-Child labor” probably plays a lot less well on a national stage.